Shock,
horror, it rains in Australia!
I don't
think either of us were naive enough to think that it didn't literally rain but
we imagined that it would be more of the tropical variety i.e. brief heavy
downpours immediately followed by sunshine . That's certainly not the case in
Sydney if the past month here is anything to go by. It's been miserable ...
more rainy days than dry ones and when it has been dry the skies have been
grey. Not what we signed up for, perhaps we should be asking for our money
back? But I don't suppose I'm going to get much sympathy if you're reading this from the UK
Given all the rain I haven't been getting out on the bike as much as I'd have hoped
so I braved the weather on Sunday and got a couple of soakings while out on the
morning club ride. We set off for a 90k ride on dry roads but I think we all
expected to get wet at some stage, the forecast wasn't good. I went prepared as
if in the UK, so I had arm warmers on and a waterproof under my saddle - all
standard practice back home. As it turned out I was the only one making such
adjustments - it was simply too warm for extra clothing. I was expecting that 5 degree drop in
temperature that you get back home, even in the summer -seems like doesn't
happen here. And the other thing is that it's a relatively clean drenching you
get here, the roads are much cleaner, none of that road dirt blackening your
legs and bike. So not exactly a positive experience but even getting wet in
Australia presents surprises to this naive Brit.
Niall is
away again, this time in Muldura doing some fruit picking (it was Oranges
initially, now Grapes). He seems to be enjoying the experience as a whole but
is rather disgruntled by the rates of pay. And who can blame him, the Orange
farm were paying 40 - 50 dollars for a 9 hour day and taking 10 dollars back
for transport costs. So he was getting up at 5 in the morning and getting the
equivalent of 2 pounds fifty per hour doing a long day in the sun. Needless to
say he's now happier to be moving on, hopefully the vineyard pay more than
'slave' rates.
We've
just heard that a couple of Ros's friends from work, Mick and Sue ( - 'Darth'
to her students) are coming to visit us over Easter. It did come as something
of a (pleasant) surprise when Mick announced they'd booked the tickets and were
virtually on their way out here - though
Ros had enticed them with the promise of warm autumnal seas so we shouldn't be
too shocked. As a result we've quickly booked a trip to Port Douglas to see the
Great Barrier Reef with them. It'll be our first trip outside of the state, hopefully the first of
many!
